Survival

They like the word war For it identifies the enemy The other Not on my block They like to point fingers Not in my America The public Is enemy number one To enforce laws To build more walls To tear families apart Separated from dreams Locked up and most often No father ever raised them […]

I am volunteer A23-5 We made it here and we are fine There is little time to think So much to do to keep us alive Sometimes I dream of the western pioneers As we sit here in our tubed station Maintaining life support for no nation So that this will be here when you […]

I ask myself, what big thing am I going to do? How am I going to change the world? What stories am I going to leave behind To let the world know I might speak for the divine? But, I can’t think of anything more to say. I can’t think of any witty satire to […]

There are ghosts on the road. They make the pavement cracked and old. They fill up your GPS with dots, connecting you from one grave to another. From brownstone to brownstone. As generations grow older and are born. So many faces are blurred together. So many variations on a theme. The living holding on to […]

At night in a cell A mind that is bound Remembers torn flesh found Remembers wrongs done As it looks for vengeance Upon the day to come As night dangles its dice Above the rabid mind Readying for the hunt Enslave a mind and build an army Ready to use fear to inflict Ready to […]

A life is a testament hard earned A story inked and burned Into clean skin A life is filled with scars Some too large to hide Most not seen live deep inside Where cells grow Our DNA knows The deep stress of survival So many terrible Winters No fire to burn No food to churn […]

We aim to detox from you Not from a drug or an addiction But from you, our culture Which has polluted the environment Which has poisoned our bodies Which has programmed our children To believe they always will need your products To believe they can never be here, now As we always look for the […]

Lack of impulse control is Not knowing what you are saying when You feel you are sharing To people who don’t want to hear Every little thing in your head Lack of impulse control is Writing manifestos for Quitting your career Posting them to Facebook And closing any future doors Executive dysfunction is Not being […]

We used to hide in your backyard dressed in camouflage all day. BB guns pumped up twenty times. That’s nearly .22 caliber we’d say. What might we kill today. Ready to shoot anything that moved. Birds, squirrels, a rabbit. Little boys without a clue. Just mirroring what we thought we knew, what men are. Playing […]

I think of my own neighborhood, how people do not know each other. How quickly we go out to get our garbage can. As we nod our heads briefly so that we might understand, that there is something more important going on inside, than to chat. Maybe a pot of something boiling for a recipe. […]

This letter is to all who survived and did not cheat. How you punched me in the gut. How you stole our dignity. I now envision your bracelets being recycled to help another cancer cause. Maybe from yellow to gray they might say, BrainStrong. Taken out of all the dresser drawers they are hidden in. […]

All my fathers are now gone with the transit of Venus. They have all toed the line. They have made all of their deadlines. So many accomplishments. So much community built and rebuilt. They were all well respected and sometimes feared. For men can speak with their fists sometimes quicker than with their lips. All […]

The mask is put on wet like a warm wash cloth. Slowly it is pulled skintight, downward. Your teeth grip a mouthpiece so there is no breathing but through covered nostrils. No eye holes. No mouth hole. No nose hole. No movement at all. No chance of freeing oneself. Strapped down to a table. No […]

I define you. So I can speak to you. So that your name holds no power. What are you? Are you the individual or the culture? Are you inside me or everywhere? Where do you begin and end? I see your photos. I know your pathology. I consume you in my food and water. I […]

It is the phone that dehumanizes. Through distance. The one who answers. Their lack of empathy The voice message menu. The voice recognition. The wanting to talk to a human. To not be delayed. To feel that you are important enough to answer. That you are not a number. That your records can be reviewed. […]

We pool our resources We list our skills and passions. We ask how to be a good neighbor. How to reach out, educating without alienating. How to find one common cause. How to find our prophet motive. Doing good without compensation. To become whole inside this global nation. Fear can be crippling as we face […]

They will talk about us. They will say we dropped the ball. That we did not do our part. That we could not quit fighting and murdering. They will say we were not able to quit thinking about ourselves. That all the signs showed us we should be better stewards of Earth but we did […]

I wear a mask and suit each day to work. Plastic and chrome. Black jacket, black tie. I am one of a billion. Same suit, same mask. Nothing new to task. Back to the future is my home. Where my beat’s and rhythm’s dance. Neon eighties bass. Boom boxed in. Deep craters of twelve inch […]

I surrender I. Flight not fight. Not seeking to invite another strike. Moving ones weight to another state. No gun needed to subdue anyone running from you. No more snake eating its tail. No more head to swell. This short exchange is done. Both opponents live on. Both soon to rise. For I surrender I. […]